Kissed by a Fox And Other Stories of Friendship in Nature

“We go someplace else to romp or ponder...instead of taking responsibility for the lands where we live. In effect, we write ourselves out of nature. It exists only where we aren’t.” For Priscilla Stuckey, this is Western culture’s fundamental and heartbreaking misconception. We overlook the natural world just outside our door. Instead, we bend nature to our will, treating it as dead matter, while failing to see the land as a soulful, breathing, responsive source of life. Using her personal experiences as the cornerstone, Stuckey explains that the keys to a happier life on Earth lie as close as the birch tree in our backyard, the nearby urban creek, the dog who settles on our bed each night—in the relationships that make up our daily lives. Drawing inspiration from a range of sources, Stuckey challenges readers to enact a different story of nature, one in which people and place are not separate, where other creatures respond to human need, and where humans and all others together create the world. With the eloquence of the great nature writers before her, Stuckey encourages us to open ourselves to the unlimited possibilities of a truly connected life.

Priscilla Stuckey teaches humanities at Prescott College and holds a PhD in religious studies and feminist theory from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and an MA from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley in American religious history. This is her first book.